


Acknowledging the Problem

by Merfilly



Category: Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Genre: Charity Auctions, F/M, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 23:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12376440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: It's a simple party, but the conversation isn't.





	Acknowledging the Problem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brightknightie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightknightie/gifts).



> Brightknightie, I truly hope this works for you. I have not watched the series in at least 11 years.

It was one of the sparsely catered affairs, breaking out just enough extra of the supplies they had to make it feel more festive than usual. Cassiopeia kept her head high, smiled when she needed to for Starbuck's sake, and avoided the troublesome men that still, sometimes, plagued her.

Starbuck never seemed to mind stepping in, but she preferred to rebuild herself as someone new within their society. It wasn't that she minded her own past. Far from it, she would admit. It was more that the men in question were the ones who had never wanted to follow the rules, or the ones who got terribly sanctimonious about it.

The Cylon attack had given them all a chance to start anew, to find a place that might be more true to their heart rather than circumstances of birth and upbringing. She was watching as people like Apollo and Starbuck alike rose to the challenge within the confines of their original roles. She also enjoyed the way people around her continued to find new resources within themselves to meet the challenges of survival.

"—next thing you know they'll be letting the socialator join the Council, or some other blasphemy."

Cassie kept her smile in place, locked her hands more around Starbuck's arm to keep him from turning more than his head in that direction. "Not worth it, Starbuck," she said very softly. "There's a lot of unease over the current Council, yes, but the ones calling for change do have a point."

"I don't care about the politics of the situation. It's that they keep bringing up your past, using it as an insult to negate all the good you do," he said, more heatedly, but keeping his voice low enough to not be overheard by the spurious detractors. 

"The politics are more important. As long as the Old Guard stand by the Council and its choices, there is little hope for keeping the full society we are building from always being divided at its core, and that will lead to problems of its own once we find Earth."

Starbuck shook his head. "And here I thought you were just pretty," he teased, with enough of a slide in the words to keep her from being angry at them.

"I listen. I learn. It's one thing I kept from my previous work. Closing your ears to words just because they don't suit you is a bad choice. So I hear the insults, but I learn why they fall the way they do."

"Teaching Starbuck again?" Apollo asked, joining them from the same direction the speakers earlier had been. Cassie glanced that way and discovered that they were being spoken to in very low tones by Adama himself, and neither of the two men looked comfortable about it.

"Please tell me that has nothing to do with me," Cassie implored quietly when she looked back to Apollo.

"No. It has to do with being prejudicial in a situation where we need open minds," Apollo said firmly. "Father is well aware of the problems we're facing. Granted, with the Cylon threat proving itself so close at hand, frequently, it's going to be some time before we can lift martial law, but the Council needs to be aware of us all.

"Not just the privileged elite," he finished up. "Did you learn anything good?" he then asked his wingman.

"That Cassie here is in touch with the people, and if the push to redefine the Council comes about, maybe she should be put forward as a candidate," Starbuck said shrewdly, making his companion stare at him in something approaching shock and dismay.

"I could never!"

Apollo dipped his head to the side, just a little, and then shrugged. "If you're not comfortable with the idea, that's understandable. But you do hear more from a variety of people than ones like those two, and the ones they represent."

"If we are going to make progress," Starbuck interjected, "we're going to need those viewpoints. Isn't that what you were telling me just a few minutes ago?" He gave her his best boyish smile, and she could only shake her head.

"I will be a medtech, and content in that field. But yes, we need many viewpoints, and better representation from all walks of life." Cassiopeia glanced around the room. "More than those I can see represented here, actually."

"Not for lack of invitation, Cassie," Apollo told her. "Sheba reached out, but… maybe because it was her? Maybe people still can't believe we are trying to make a better future, once we find our new home? I don't know. There were a few polite declines, and mostly they were ignored."

Starbuck got that crafty, plotting look on his features and it was all Cassie could do to not fuss at him to let it go.

"You're thinking," Apollo pointed out.

"If Cassiopeia doesn't want to try and be part of the new Council, once the people push that into a reality, maybe she can work to find the right voices on all sides, and help them learn to understand each other? After all, look what she's done with me. And how she's made a friendship with Sheba work, when I thought that would never happen."

Apollo gave a small smile. "You're the only one who didn't then." He nodded in respect to Cassie. "I think Starbuck might be thinking in the right direction, though. You are good with people. Maybe you can, when you have time for it, start facilitating meetings to heal the growing breach between all?"

Cassiopeia opened her mind and heart to the idea that was being broached, and considered all the merits and flaws. Her past might actually help her in this, and her present would only be seen as a key point of the changes possible. 

"I'd like to think it over," she finally said. "But, it is a good idea, Starbuck. I just can't race into anything that big, even if I won't be in the forefront of the events themselves."

"That's alright, Cassie. We have time, like Apollo said. Those Cylons aren't going anywhere yet."

"Someday, though," Apollo said, before moving on to rejoin his father.


End file.
